Superbug spreads in European hospitals as resistance to last resort antibiotics grows

Drug resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae—bacteria that live harmlessly in the human intestine but can cause serious infections if they spread elsewhere in the body—are rapidly spreading between patients in hospitals throughout Europe, research has found.1

Strains of the bacteria, which can cause pneumonia and meningitis, are quickly becoming resistant to the “last hope” group of antibiotics, the carbapenems.

Deaths from carbapenem resistant K pneumoniae in Europe have been rising in …